Shahid Kapoor-Triptii Dimri’s O Romeo was once being made with Irrfan Khan, Deepika Padukone. Here’s what went wrong

The chapter that O Romeo is allegedly based on explores the dynamics between three notorious Mumbai gangsters of the 1990s — Ustra, Sapna Didi (Triptii Dimri), and Dawood Ibrahim (Nana Patekar). It revolves around the revenge Ashraf Khan aka Sapna Didi seeks from Dawood for the police encounter of her husband Mehmood Kaliya (Vikrant Massey).

She joins forces with her husband Hussain Ustra, a former ally of Dawood who even tried to get him nabbed as a police informer. They plan his assassination at a cricket match in Sharjah, but much to their disbelief, Dawood is two steps ahead of them and gets her brutally murdered before he’s harmed.

O Romeo once starred Irrfan Khan and Deepika Padukone

Years before O Romeo even got its current title, it was being planned with late Irrfan Khan playing Ustra and Deepika Padukone portraying Sapna Didi. They were signed for the film back in 2017, with casting director Honey Trehan attached as the director. However, multiple delays over the years caused the team and title of the film to change completely.

Firstly, the film, which was scheduled to go on floors in January 2018 and release in cinemas on October 2 that year, didn’t commence shoot as planned. That was because of the delays caused in the filming of Padukone’s previous film, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2018 period drama Padmaavat. Thanks to the opposition from Shri Rajput Karni Sena, the shoot faced a lot of setbacks, including one of its sets being torched to ashes.

The next setback came in the form of the creative differences between Trehan and his mentor Vishal Bhardwaj. The latter, who had launched Trehan as a casting director and an associate director with Makdee (2002), took over the film after his next couple of films didn’t materialize as planned post the failure of his 2017 ambitious movie Rangoon, starring Shahid, Saif Ali Khan, and Kangana Ranaut. Trehan opeted out of the film after his fallout with Bhardwaj, and would later make his directorial debut with the Netflix India whodunit Raat Akeli Hai in 2020.

The third setback was when Irrfan was diagnosed with a rare cancer called Neuroendocrine Tumour. He had to immediately stop filming and seek treatment in London. He stayed there for almost two years before returning to India in 2020. He passed away days later in April 2020. Along with Irrfan’s illness and subsequent demise, other production roadblocks included the arrest of producer Prernaa Arora of KriArj Entertainment and the lockdown imposed due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Revival as O Romeo

It was finally a couple of years ago that Vishal Bhardwaj got his film back on track after Nadiadwala came on board as producer. However, since Irrfan was no more and Deepika was busy with other projects and then her pregnancy, the lead cast was changed to Shahid and Triptii. A minor setback came in the form of Randeep Hooda opting out of playing Dawood days before the shoot, only to be replaced by Nana Patekar. Avinash Tiwary, Disha Patani, and Farida Jalal are also a part of the ensemble cast.

Also Read — ‘Aap gaali dengi na?’: What Vishal Bhardwaj asked Farida Jalal before casting her in Shahid Kapoor’s O’ Romeo

When it was being made with Irrfan and Deepika, the title was Rani. However, once Shahid came on board, the names of the characters were changed in order to not encounter any legal issues from Ustra’s family, who had already been threatening Zaidi ever since his book was published. Thus, the title was changed from Arjun Ustra to O Romeo. Given the new lawsuit from Ustra’s daughter, the troubles for this film refuse to die down. It’s slated to release in cinemas on February 13.